Is 'The Cloud' over hyped?

[Frank616]

It seems every new technology goes through a similar cycle of hype vs reality, and then either survives or dies based on what it really delivers. Here is an interesting article on the current state of Cloud development that points out that adoption is a lot slower than anticipated.

With recent revelations of Cloud weaknesses and cracks, I wonder why?

(Fair warning: The second article is big, and probably more detailed than it needs to be.)

Do you trust "The Cloud"?

Frank.

[woodsmoke]

As Ronald Reagan once said: "Trust but verify".

I post stuff to the cloud that is not in any way something that is "critical" in terms of if it is "hacked" or "stolen" that it would be a problem.

However, I also keep a physical backup of what is posted to the cloud, usually on a usb drive and carry it with me.

That may sound rather anally retentive, but when one is working at another location and needs something on a variable basis; it is quite often easier to work with it by grabbing it from the cloud than loading up a usb stick.

I, presently, have never, with the exception of one instance, had a problem with cloud storage or manipulation.

woodsmoke

[sixonetonoffun]

Kids in school now are growing up in the cloud. With quality apps like http://prezi.com available to make learning fun and easy without installing high priced software. No fear of not having the right version to do...

[SteveRiley]

The cloud as an evolution of IT in the direction of a utility model is important and inevitable. Done right, cloud deployments can be more secure and more reliable than typical on-premise IT.

But cloud marketing makes too many promises that sully its reputation. Gartner's 2012 cloud hype cycle appears to indicate that we've reached the bottom of the trough of disillusionment. Organizations are best served when they choose one model and focus their energies on that.

http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2012/08/t...pe-cycle-2012/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscol...irtualization/

One of the most valuable career opportunities I've enjoyed was working for Amazon Web Services for a time, observing from the inside how one of the best cloud providers builds and runs its business. Interestingly, working for a cloud provider has enabled me to distance myself from much of the hype. I'd urge anyone working in IT to spend a portion of their careers doing the same.

[whatthefunk]

Outside of making it convenient to switch files from one device to another, I dont see the point in cloud computing. There is really no incentive to move everything to the cloud. This is probably why people havent been using it as much as expected.

[Arran]

I see for me as a unique and mostly only user of my desktop and absolutely not interested in anything like laptop and tablet the cloud as an absolute no-go. I prefer also to keep all my data on my two hard disks (one small one for the OS, 1 TB for all my data) and think about buying another 1TB sata drive, so I can backup a 1:1 copy of the working one + the OS.

For the rest of the world? The ones who think they have to throw away their money for something similar overpriced and outdated but «sexy» like Apple products, they can do what they want, it is not my money. I will drink a real great dram of Arran Single Malt when I read the first report about large data stealing off a cloud or a clound just gets lost forevere in cyberspace.

[Frank616]

Woodsmoke:

I post stuff to the cloud that is not in any way something that is "critical" in terms of if it is "hacked" or "stolen" that it would be a problem.

That is the extent of my use of the cloud as well. I have an Android phone, so I appreciate using GMail for my contacts. Those get reflected to GMail on my desktop, and laptop. Though the web GMail interface I hate, Thunderbird I like, and it works with GMail through imap. A neat little add-on called "Google Contacts" does a good job of keeping my Thunderbird address book up to date. This is all done with the magic of the cloud, of course.

I use Dropbox for moving invoice files between my business and my office in my home (all running 100% Linux, btw). I don't store anything there, however.

My backup strategy is to use an rsync script to mirror a /data directory on all of 5 of my Linux-only machines, one of which is off-site. This includes all my photos, and 20 years of digitized 8mm analog and miniDV digital videos of my daughter. With 5 copies in two locations, I reduce the odds of loss, and _I_ control the data.

However, using the cloud for backup, and particularly an only backup I think is to invite disaster, as the sad story I linked to in the first post shows. While Steve feels that online storage can be safe, it seems that more and more efforts are being put into finding the inevitable weaknesses in any online system. The larger the target, the greater the risks. Security through obscurity is not a bad idea. While my home network could be the target of crackers, it is less likely than a huge server farm somewhere.

Cloud computing has its place, but to use it for storage of sensitive files, or for backups I feel is not yet worth the risk.

Frank.

[GreyGeek]

He who owns the server owns the data on it. The situation is made much worse when the "cloud" service slides down the commodity graph to the lowest price provider, which always happens to be in countries were workers are treated almost, if not actually, as slaves, and given slave wages. Those in power in those countries are, beyond a shadow of doubt, sifting through data on those servers, seeking industrial/commercial advantages.

I never trust a cloud and never store anything on it that I wouldn't let a total stranger look at. I use UbuntuOne to store several GB of pdf's, jpg's, docs, mov's, etc... that I don't want to waste my disk space storing. I nice feature is that I can post a link to a particular file on my cloud so that someone else can view or download it.

[SecretCode]

Interesting thread ...

Yes, cloud "services" are seriously overhyped (and I use quotes because often the service is not quantified by the vendor or the decision maker until it's too late).
Plus, if you buy a service and trust it without verifying it, you shouldn't complain about failures.

But I don't buy this idea that data on servers you "control" is automatically safer than data on cloud servers. That's the same (emotional) reasoning based on a sense of control that makes us feel that driving a private car is safer than being a passenger on a commercial plane. For the individual, casual user, sure, pretty much the only advantage is accessing the same data from multiple devices. Just as I wouldn't look for a scheduled flight as the best option for getting from Chipping Sodbury to Wotton-under-Edge. But for businesses, and for the individual user who actually cares about fire flood theft and related risks to their data, cloud services need to be seriously considered along with privately owned remote servers.

[SteveRiley]

Enterprise-grade cloud computing encompasses much more than many people realize. I have more to say, but not now -- a bum kitchen faucet requires my immediate attention.

Let me offer this analogy for the moment. Think: where's your money? It's in a bank. Off-premise, away from your house. Yet we really don't question ownership: the bank has your money, but you still own it. Banking is cloud financing.

More later.

[SecretCode]

I have more to say, but not now -- a bum kitchen faucet requires my immediate attention.

Where are your priorities, Mr Riley?

[SteveRiley]

Where are your priorities, Mr Riley?

Sorry, guys... wife > KFN

[Snowhog]

Priority List:

1. Wife
2. Everything permitted by 1. above

[arist]

Let me offer this analogy for the moment. Think: where's your money? It's in a bank. Off-premise, away from your house. Yet we really don't question ownership: the bank has your money, but you still own it. Banking is cloud financing.

I assume it was offered in an off-hand way, but I will point to a couple of problems with this analogy anyway. First, money is pure undifferentiated quantity: the content of my dollar #134 is exactly the same as your dollar #22. What concerns people about the cloud is not the quantity of data, but what happens to the content. Unlike with the bank, someone could steal my data from the server while leaving the data in place.

Second, the issue of ownership is murky. When I deposit my money in the bank, it doesn't stay there. I give them permission to do whatever they want with it: I don't control whom they lend it to. As long as I can get the same quantity out as I put in, it doesn't matter to me. With my data, I care very much about who has access to it. But do I have any more control than with the bank?

[Frank616]

Steve:

Think: where's your money? It's in a bank. Off-premise, away from your house. Yet we really don't question ownership: the bank has your money, but you still own it. Banking is cloud financing.

Interesting analogy. However....

In Canada, your deposits are insured by the government (not sure about the US). If the bank goes under, you still have your money.

In addition, money is generic. It is not personal.

I know that any analogy is going to have places where it is not a perfect match, so I'm not trying to nit-pick. It is just that there have been so many 'break-ins' to even respected online services that it gives one pause to reflect.

In addition, there are so many possible weaknesses in any complicated piece of software that eventually something is going to be found that makes a major impact. If we could foresee those 'cracks', we would patch them. But no one can foresee everything, as recent exploits have proven. Some smart cracker is going to find some vulnerability somewhere that is major. IIUC, Stuxnet used 4 of them (Windows, of course). IMHO, it is just plain impossible to cover all the bases. Therefore, it becomes a risk/benefit analysis.

I know one large group that maintains two networks. One is totally internal, and has ZERO connection to the Internet. The other network has a connection to the Internet, but ZERO connection to the internal network. The two never meet because of rigorous internal policy (at least, that is the theory).

I don't put anything in The Cloud that I wouldn't put on a postcard. Somebody, somewhere is eventually going to read it.

Sorry, guys... wife > KFN

Wise man.

Frank.